Form of American football with restricted player weights
Navy sprint football team, Fall 1963.
Sprint football is a varsity sport played by United States colleges and universities, under standardAmerican football rules.[1] Since the 2022 season, the sport has been governed by theCollegiate Sprint Football League and theMidwest Sprint Football League.
In sprint football, players must weigh less than 178 lb (81 kg) and have a minimum of 5%body fat to be eligible to play.[2] The end result of these weight restrictions is an emphasis on speed and agility rather than on size and strength.[3]
–Collegiate Sprint Football League –Midwest Sprint Football League
As of the upcoming 2025 season, nine schools play in the CSFL and six in the Midwest Sprint Football League.[4] Of the nine CSFL members, six are private universities (two being schools in theIvy League) and two are national military academies. All seven MSFL members are private institutions. CSFL memberMansfield University of Pennsylvania is the only state university or college currently playing sprint football.
All CSFL teams are located in theNortheastern andMid-Atlantic regions of the United States. Eight schools joined in the 21st century, one in 2008, six in the 2010s, and one in 2024. Five are active in sprint football in the 2024 season. Of these new members, three no longer sponsor the sport;Franklin Pierce University, which joined in 2012, transitioned to full-sized football inNCAA Division II after the 2018 season,[16]Post University, which joined in 2010, did the same after the canceled 2020 season,[17] andAlderson Broaddus University, which joined in 2019 and also fielded a full-sized football team, dropped all athletics and departed the CSFL in 2023. Of the other 21st-century arrivals, no other current members also field a full-size varsity football team. The other four teams (all of which have been in the CSFL since 1957) have full-size football teams that compete inNCAA Division I, the service academies inFBS, and theIvy League schools inFCS. Each team plays a seven-game season.[18] It is not uncommon for the CSFL teams to play against full-sizejunior varsity orclub football squads from other schools in the early part of the season (in 2015, for instance, Navy faced theLongwood Lancers).
Army, Cornell, and Penn (and formerly Princeton prior to it dropping the sport) hold alumni games in which sprint football alumni return to campus for a full-contact scrimmage against the varsity squad. The alumni games serve the dual purpose of raising funds to support the team and maintaining alumni interest in the program.[19] Typically, the alumni have to donate a monetary weight penalty (e.g., $2 per pound) for weighing above the 178-pound limit.[20] In 2017, when Caldwell joined, the CSFL was split into two divisions, the North and the South. On December 7, 2017,St. Thomas Aquinas College was announced as the tenth team in the league, to begin play in the 2018 season.[15] After that season,Franklin Pierce left to play full-sized football and was replaced by Alderson Broaddus.[21] However, in 2023, Alderson Broaddus' authorization to grant degrees was revoked, and they were required to drop all athletics, including their sprint football program.[22]
The newest CSFL member isMolloy University, a Division II member which added the sport in the 2024 season.[23]
As of 2023, only one charter member of the league remains, thePenn Quakers. ThePrinceton Tigers dropped the sport after 2015, following 16 consecutive years ofwinless seasons (an organized football record) and changes in league membership, and shifted its resources toclub football.[24] A number of other Ivy League schools have historically had sprint football teams, including theYale Bulldogs,Harvard Crimson, andColumbia Lions, all of whom had dropped the sport many years earlier; of the Ivy League schools, only Penn and theCornell Big Red remain.
For its first 83 seasons, the CSFL did not sponsor playoff orbowl games (a tradition due in no small part to the Ivy League schools, who, like the rest of the Ivy League, abstain from all football postseason play to encourage academic performance). The season championship was decided solely by the regular season record; if multiple teams were tied atop the standings, all of them shared the championship. Since Navy's and Army's respective admissions to the league, those two schools have dominated the league; of the 72 seasons of lightweight football since Navy joined, they and/or Army have won at least a share of the league title in 76 of them, including stretches of 20 consecutive seasons from 1955–74 and 17 straight from 1983–99. Since the 2017 season, a championship game has been held onVeterans Day weekend.
Although CSFL and MSFL teams are consideredvarsity teams and official school-sponsored sports for the purpose of theNCAA, sprint football teams do not fall into the same divisional structure as other NCAA sports and thus do not follow the same rules or restrictions onathletic scholarships as traditional college football squads are bound to follow.
In April 2020, the CSFL chose Dan Mara, also Commissioner of theCentral Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC) as Commissioner. In July of that year, the league voted to not play a fall 2020 season out of concern over theCOVID-19 pandemic, over the objections of Army and Navy, who indicated an intent to continue play without the other eight teams.[25] In addition to a single Army-Navy game in the fall,[26] Caldwell and St. Thomas Aquinas played a single game in spring 2021.[27] The league resumed normal operations in fall 2021.
The MSFL was formed in 2021, with play starting in 2022, by six private institutions in the Midwest and Upper South. The league has its own bylaws and championship, but uses the same weight limits as the CSFL. The creation of the MSFL was touted as "the largest single-year expansion of the sport in nearly 90 years." Of the members, all areCatholic except forMidway University andOakland City University. The onlyNCAA Division I member isBellarmine University, which was transitioning fromNCAA Division II when the MSFL was formed.Quincy University, a Division II member, is the only charter MSFL member that also plays full-sized football. Three other charter members areNAIA members.Fontbonne University is the only charter member that no longer plays the sport; theNCAA Division III member played in the first two MSFL seasons before announcing its closure at the end of the 2024–25 academic year.[4][34]
The league added two members, both private institutions, after its first season.Oakland City University, an NAIA member that does not play full-sized football, announced on July 19, 2022 that it was adding sprint football for the 2023 season. In the process, it became the MSFL's second non-Catholic member, instead being affiliated with theGeneral Baptist churches.[35] Exactly three months later,Walsh University, a Catholic institution and NCAA Division II member that plays full-sized football, announced it would also add sprint football for 2023.[36]
One of the more recent changes in MSFL membership was Fontbonne's departure after the 2023 season. The school announced in May of 2024 that it would be closing after the Summer semester in 2025.[37]
Walsh University discontinued its sprint football program in 2025, bringing the league's membership to six schools. This leaves Oakland City as the only non-charter member left in the league.[38]
CSFL rules, also used by the MSFL, require that players must weigh no more than 178 pounds (81 kg), a figure that has slowly increased from its original 150 pounds (68 kg) as theweight of the American college student has increased over the course of the league's existence.[3] League rules specify official weigh-ins four days and two days before each game. Players must weigh 178 pounds (81 kg) four days and 2 days prior to game day. Players are allowed to gain weight back after meeting the weight limit[18]
Jack Cloud, College Football Hall of Famer, former NFL player (in 1990); Cloud came to the Naval Academy in 1959 and spent the next 32 years in Annapolis coaching football, and the head lightweight (now called sprint) football coach from 1958–61, 1963–72, and 1980–82, in addition to teaching in the Physical Education Department.
Sean Morey, former NFL player, coached the Princeton sprint squad for its last two seasons of existence.
Tony Franklin, former OC at Cal, Kentucky, Auburn, among others, offensive coordinator for Army West Point 2022.[47]
Mike Siani, played wide receiver for the Oakland Raiders and Baltimore Colts; was the quarterbacks and wide receivers coach for Princeton.[48]
Eric Tipton, College Football Hall of Famer, Major League Baseball outfielder (1939–1945); Tipton was an assistant baseball and football coach at the College of William & Mary for 18 seasons, and then was the head baseball coach and Lightweight football coach at the United States Military Academy.
William "Wags" Wagner, Head Coach of Sprint Football at University of Pennsylvania from 1970-2019. During nearly five decades at the helm of Quaker Sprint Football, Wagner amassed 136 career wins and led his program to five Collegiate Sprint Football League titles (and the Ivy League team with best Ivy League record since 2002 is awarded the "William R. Wagner Trophy"). Wagner also served as an assistant coach for the UPenn baseball team for 35 years of his tenure.[49]
Television rights to sprint football leagues are generally handled through the same outlets as their schools' respective athletic conferences. Caldwell, Chestnut Hill and Mansfield games are carried viaHudl-managed platforms of the CACC[50] andPSAC,[51] while Penn's and Cornell's home sprint games are carried viaESPN+ as part of its Ivy League contract, with ESPN+ also carrying select other CSFL and MSFL contests.[52]
^Sports, Collegiate Sprint Football League (CSFL); Ed Weaver, Circle W.; League (CSFL), Collegiate Sprint Football."SprintFootball.com".SprintFootball.com. Retrieved2025-01-10.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^abcdThompson, Adam (2008-09-26). "A Small League for Little Dudes Is the New Hope at Mansfield U.".Wall Street Journal. p. A1.
^"Tim McGuire"(PDF).Indiana State University Football 2004 Media Guide. Indiana State Sycamores. 2004. pp. 9–10.Archived(PDF) from the original on 2016-03-03. Retrieved2021-01-25.
^Glassman, Les."Time Out"(PDF).The Daily Pennsylvanian.Archived(PDF) from the original on 8 October 2016. Retrieved20 September 2016.
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